Isn't That Special?

"Issues with God".... well, that was an attention grabber; my issues are with the Bible, but i cannot separate the Christian God, Jehovah, from the Bible, and since that book creates, for me, such a ridiculous picture of the universe i can only reject it and it's God.

I have my own God Almighty that is secure in it's own might that it does not require worship. It just wants to be left alone, and doesn't give a crap about our American football games. Live your life, enjoy it if you can, and let other people enjoy theirs as they wish as long as they are not hurting anyone; that is my God's philosophy.

I speak for myself, of course, and since centuries of thinking by greater minds than my own has not produced a definitive answer to the question of the legitimacy of creation, the flood, the burning bush, or even Jesus.... then why can't i have a say?

"But the Pope....my minister....countless televangelists....even some scientists believe in God."

What makes them so special that we have to believe what they say? What makes their beliefs more believable than mine?

Millions of people have read the Bible and believe, and millions of others have come away from it with doubts. Where does that leave us?

Where we have always been....nowhere.

Grime and Punishment

I don't know about my father's other children from his other wives, but when i came along he'd become devout, and i got at least a couple of good belt whippings, and by "good" i mean bad. That "spare the rod, spoil the child" rubbish he took to heart made his swinging arm all self-righteous.

When the first of our 4 children came along, i had not thought out the best course of action when it came to discipline, i probably thought that my children would be perfect; so when the time came, of course, i had a visceral reaction to my uncontrollable son and took out my belt on a couple of occasions. That made me look back at my childhood and look into modern thinking on discipline and decided that i would never use corporal punishment.

I am now certain that this barbarism sanctioned by the Bible, does no good and is akin to flogging. It only leaves negative effects and i knew that the only chance i had for a normal relationship with my son would be to discipline without humiliation. Once your children know what is expected of them, the rest is maintenance. Strict disciplinarians should not have children, anyway; kids break and lose things, get things dirty, and sticky, and they disobey. It's what they do. God is as strict a disciplinarian as you can get, and look what happened to his children, according to the Bible.

But who wrote these words? That is the question. This "spare the rod, spoil the child" and this story of God's punishment for A&E's sin, who wrote this? Was it our creator, our supposedly loving Father?

     "Dude, listen, i'm busy, got a universe to run, maybe several universi, and you just know they're
going to be spinning in different directions. So, I want you to write the story of man and Earth.... I know, I know, we got off on the wrong foot, a bit of shaky start there, but this book will be the start of the healing; it'll be huge, you'll see. Here are the basic facts.... Write!"

Or was it man's imagination, barbaric, superstitious, often small-minded but imaginative man? The machinations of thinkers concerned with the growing number of cities popping up, "children" that needed guidence, control. Because when a large number of people get together they become a force, and it's own morality, unlike small bands of nomads.

A Shift of Mind

The other night i was awakened by my shaking bed and a low rumbling which i imagined could have traveled from the time of the woolly mammoths; this was my first earthquake.

Actually experiencing this natural occurrence, which was a mild tremor, thankfully, forced me to find a place for it in my imaginary realm in which i am the reluctant king.

So i, as we often must, go back to the begining, back to A&E in the Garden of Eden. There were no earthquakes then; how could such a frightning, destructive, and sometimes deadly occurrence exist in a perfect world? And i think we have established that God gave A&E this perfect world for them to multiply and fill.

Then the unthinkable happened, A&E disobeyed, and it was time to pay. We all know what we had and what was taken away. But wait! God had one more trick up his sleeve in order to make mankind suffer; God rearranges these clumps of rock that we live on so once in a while they shift and destroy what we have built on them, kill living beings, or at the very least, disrupt our sleep. And you wonder where man gets his imagination.

Volcanos? Well, we all need to let off steam, and it's not like they hide from us.